I am doing casual research to broaden my culinary repertoire to include foods that Jamie can eat (no wheat, eggs, or dairy — more on that in my next post).

I adapted this casserole from the Moosewood Cookbook. It is delicious. Sadly, Jamie did not seem to think so. But it was a very different taste and texture from anything he’s used to. Maybe next time he’ll give it another chance.

Spinach-Rice Casserole with Beef

2 cups water
2 cups Minute Rice (or use regular white or brown rice, and cook it according to package directions)
1/2 pound ground beef, 85% lean
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 pound frozen chopped spinach
2 teaspoons garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
Sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

Cook rice according to package directions (for Minute Rice, boil 2 cups of water, add rice, stir, cover, remove from heat, and let sit for 5 minutes). In a medium saucepan or Dutch oven, cook ground beef over medium-high heat until browned. Add onion and spinach; cook 5 minutes. Add seasonings and sunflower seeds.

Top with shredded sharp cheddar cheese, for the non-allergic. Vegans can leave out the ground beef and still have a tasty nutritious meal.

I know I’m late to the party with my iPad post. So I’ll just list a few quick thoughts, a few of my favorite name jokes, an interesting quote, and a link to Doc’s extremely interesting and eloquent post about the iPad.

First I must admit that I have not been paying too much attention to the product, its features, the keynote address, or the hoopla surrounding its release. My 14-month-old ball of wiggle and scream has been taking up the spare brain cells, time, and energy that I normally would have devoted to a new Apple product release.

My first thought was that it is really just a giant iPhone without the phone part — and what’s the point of that? After a while, though, I realized that there are definitely good uses for it. For instance, I have my iPhone with me pretty much 24/7, but I can count on one hand the number of phone calls I make in a typical week. I use it for social networking, email, games, reading news, keeping our home calendar, storing grocery and to-do lists, showing off photos of Jamie, listening to podcasts, music, and radio, looking at webpages, calculating tips, …. oh, the list goes on and on and on. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to do that stuff on a screen that is bigger than 2″x3″?

YES. Yes, it would. There is a lot that I DON’T do with my iPhone, because typing on it is such a pain in the butt. Not that the iPhone’s keyboard interface is bad; rather, I am about ten times faster typing on a full-sized keyboard than I am typing on a tiny pad with my thumbs. So having a large screen with a closer-to-full-sized keyboard would be fantastic.

Secondly, reading text would be SO MUCH EASIER.

But I love my iPhone’s ease of portability. The darn thing fits in my pocket, purse, and on my nightstand. No way the iPad will. Also no way to surreptitiously pull out the iPad in a meeting to check email or Facebook.

But I’m talking like the iPad is supposed to be a replacement for the iPhone. It’s not.

I guess I’m still trying to reconcile the fact that I have an iPhone, and I have a MacBook Pro. Where would an iPad fit into my life? Maybe it wouldn’t. Not yet, anyway.

On another note, here are some of the best jokes about the name that I have heard:

• Are the apps cardboard or plastic?
• Are you there, God? It’s me, marketing.
• The iPad is the best-ever Apple product. Period.
• iPad: 30% thicker, for your heaviest computer usage days.
• Yes, the iPad is small, lightweight and slim. But can you swim with it?

But according to CNN,

Andy Ihnatko, a tech columnist at the Chicago Sun-Times, said Apple could call its new gadget a “mangled baby duck” and people would still buy it, both because Apple has sex appeal and because the iPad is a good product. “With the right device, marketing doesn’t really matter,” he said.

Mujadarrah is a delicious high-protein and high-fiber side dish. I created this recipe based on the mujadarrah served at a local Mediterranean restaurant.

We served it with broiled salmon fillets last night. It’s also dirt-cheap! The recipe below makes enough for six generous servings, and costs about 35 cents per serving.

1 quart water, or veggie or chicken broth
1 cup brown lentils
1 cup white long-grain rice
2 teaspoons canola oil
1 small yellow onion, sliced
1 teaspoon cider vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Boil water or broth. Add lentils and cook for about 15 minutes, covered. Add rice and stir. Cover and cook until rice is tender, 15-20 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add sliced onion. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is browned, about 10-15 minutes. Sprinkle with cider vinegar, salt and pepper to taste. Stir again and remove from heat.

When lentils and rice are done, add onion mixture, cumin, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine and serve.

Last Monday Doc took Jamieson to the pediatrician for his one-year checkup. Overall everything (other than the usual digestive issues and eczema) is fine. He is in the 95th percentile for height, weight, and head circumference — back on the charts, at last! Here’s hoping he slows down a bit in growth. He is 27 pounds 13 ounces and 31-1/2 inches tall.

The pediatrician (whom we just love; Dr. Michael Brown with Pediatric Associates of Dallas, in case you’re in the market for one) asked if we’d made any progress with his food sensitivities and eczema. Doc told him that things were overall pretty much the same, but that the past few nights had been really bad, with Jamie waking up between 6 and 8 times per night in pain. Dr. Brown asked what Dr. Whitney, our gastroenterologist, was doing to treat it — and had she done an endoscopy yet? (No.) We hadn’t seen her in a while but were due to a few days later, and he asked us to have her give him a call so they could discuss Jamie’s case. Now maybe doctors wanting to work together like that is common practice, I don’t know. But it’s a really good feeling to know that our current doctors actually care enough to try to solve our son’s problem, rather than just telling us that there’s nothing wrong or that WE need to work harder to eliminate his food allergies through diet.

We saw Dr. Whitney last Thursday. I told her right off the bat that we were at a point where we felt we needed to try something different. Controlling his symptoms through diet just has not been working well enough. She immediately suggested that the next course of action should probably be that endoscopy that Dr. Brown had mentioned, plus a colonoscopy and biopsies. She had hoped that he would grow out of his sensitivities, but since he was now a year old and still having difficulties, this is the next step in the quest to solve his problems.

So Jamie goes in on Wednesday for surgery. :(

I’m not sure if “surgery” is the best term; they’re not going to cut him open or anything but he will be under general anaesthesia. They’ll stick cameras up his butt and down his throat (Doc hopes that they don’t just rinse off the one camera between uses) to look for inflammation as well as the presence of certain types of cells that would indicate allergic reactions. And they’ll take biopsies of his intestines and esophagus (I think).

And after that, they’ll be able to recommend treatment. There’s a possibility that he’ll go on allergy medication, which will have an added benefit (if you choose to see it that way) of making him drowsy at night. He may also go to see an allergist for a skin scratch test.

I’m a little bit worried about the anaesthesia part of things, but I really think that this is the right thing to do. I’m not sure what else we can do at this point. Life really hasn’t been fair to Jamie. He  just doesn’t feel well most of the time. I hope that we can find some answers and he can begin to feel good and be able to get some quality sleep.

Jamieson began walking on January 1! Happy New Year, everyone!

And with the Infant Commander’s newfound mobility comes a promotion and new title: Lord Emperor Toddler.

He’s not too terribly excited about walking yet; he doesn’t do it all the time by any means. But when we do ask him to walk and he manages to go a few feet, he is all smiles and SO proud of himself.

Jamieson has had a bad couple of nights. Last night and the night before, he required us to be with him nearly constantly throughout the night. Doc and I have been taking shifts, laying with him on the mattress we put on his floor, trying to keep him asleep.

He’s been having a particularly rough time of it really since Thankgiving or a little before. We went through a stretch of a week or so where he seemed more relaxed and was only waking once in the night instead of his up-till-then usual twice. The norm since then has been three to four wakings, until the past few days when it’s been six to eight times a night.

Last night his nose was very clogged and he was having trouble breathing, and that woke him up numerous times. And of course, his usual problems with gas and intestinal pain kept waking him up too. He’s been bolting awake from a sound sleep, shrieking and arching his back and stiffening his legs. It takes a long time to get him back to sleep, and we haven’t been able to set him back down in the crib; he’ll wake up the instant you put him down. So he’s been sleeping (if you can call it that) next to us instead.

Which means, of course, that we don’t sleep well either. He moves and twitches constantly throughout the night, and if we do manage to fall asleep ourselves, it’s fitful since we’re so attuned to his every movement.

We are getting desperate for answers. A one year old not sleeping through the night, EVER, is somewhat unusual, but a one year old who wakes up screaming in pain multiple times throughout the night… well, there’s definitely something wrong there.

His pediatrician is very interested in getting this problem fixed, whatever it may be. We go to see the gastroenterologist again on Thursday, and the pediatrician wants to talk to her about what’s going on. I’m so tired of hearing “he’ll outgrow his food sensitivities” and that we just have to wait it out and continue to try to control his pain through diet. I mean, if that’s the only answer then that’s the only answer and we’ll deal with it, but it seems like it doesn’t matter what he eats, EVERYTHING causes him pain. There’s got to be SOMETHING we can do… isn’t there?

Rachel forwarded me these random amusing thoughts a couple of months ago…

*****

More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can’t wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that’s not only better, but also more directly involves me.

Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.

Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you’re going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you’re crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

That’s enough, Nickelback.

I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.

Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn’t work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ’s. We just figured it out. Today’s kids are soft.

I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I’ll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone’s laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I’m still the only one who really, really gets it.

How are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

I think part of a best friend’s job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

Was learning cursive really necessary?

Lol has gone from meaning, “laugh out loud” to “I have nothing else to say”.

I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.

How many times is it appropriate to say “What?” before you just nod and smile because you still didn’t hear what they said?

I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a dick from cutting in at the front.

MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t at least kind of tired.

Whenever I’m Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don’t mind if I do!

Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I’m from, this shouldn’t be a problem….

You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you’ve made up your mind that you just aren’t doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don’t want to have to restart my collection.

There’s no worse feeling than that millisecond you’re sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

“Do not machine wash or tumble dry” means I will never wash this ever.

I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There’s so much pressure. ‘I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren’t watching this. It’s only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?’

I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Dammit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What’d you do after I didn’t answer? Drop the phone and run away?

I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it’s on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

Sometimes I’ll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.

I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn’t know what do to with it.

It really pisses me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.

I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.

A Disney short from 1956. If you can ignore the racism, robbery, kidnapping, and attempted murder, enjoy the amazing artwork and the seriously catchy song.

So Jamie now has six teeth: his two front lower ones, and four front upper ones. It’s terribly cute.

We didn’t even notice tooth #6 coming in this past week because its arrival coincided with a bout of “hand, foot, and mouth disease” (I am not making that up). Poor kiddo had a 103.2 fever last Saturday, then developed a spotty rash on his feet, ankles, leg-fat creases, hands, and around his mouth. Also, we suspect he had a very sore throat. The fever only lasted about a day and a half (and high fevers have their blessings, such as verrrrrrry sleepy babies), and the rash didn’t itch, but the sore throat kept him from sleeping more than an hour at a time for two days. Luckily, the virus is very mild and he was feeling much better within a couple of days. He didn’t eat much of anything except his formula, and half-frozen applesauce.

Jamie is now standing on his own, and occasionally he will take a couple of steps, but he’s not walking yet. I’m not exactly eager for that to happen — I can’t imagine how difficult it will be to keep up with him once he can walk — but at the same time, he’s so heavy now (probably 28 pounds) that it will be nice to not have to carry him all the time.

He isn’t saying any words yet (unless you count his normal babbling, and I can’t tell whether any of it’s purposeful yet or not), but he is beginning to communicate by pointing. He’ll point at things he’s interested in, such as his sippy cup or a toy, or he’ll point and make an inquisitive noise, which we interpret as him asking what something is. And we can ask him where various things are, like the ceiling fan or the light or the clock or the Christmas tree, and he can look or point in the right direction. So he clearly understands a LOT of what we are saying now. It’s nice!

And he will be ONE YEAR OLD on Tuesday! I hope to write a year-in-review type post this week. Mom is coming into town tomorrow so I might actually have a few spare moments to write!

Here’s some recent movies of Mr. Pants:

New Help for Moms with Postpartum Depression

By Bonnie Rochman, Parenting

An inpatient psychiatric unit specifically dedicated to women suffering perinatal (prenatal and postpartum) mood disorders opens and gets new moms the help they need.

hortly before last Mother’s Day, 28-year-old Lauren Meehan-Machos broke down in front of her startled husband. “This is more than I can handle,” she sobbed.

The typically confident and self-assured Cary, NC, mom — a former Miss New Hampshire — had felt overwhelmed and panicky since giving birth to her first child, Luke, two months prior. She’d obsessed so much about getting feedings and naps “right” that she stopped eating and sleeping herself. She cried continuously. She started throwing up.

Her doctor had prescribed medication for postpartum anxiety. But, she told her husband, the day before, she’d found herself at the wheel of her red Chevy Impala, rain falling in sheets from the sky, thinking, If I drive my car off the road, all this will go away.

“I was stunned,” recalls Kevin Machos. “She’d done a very good job of hiding what she was feeling.”

Immediately, Meehan-Machos’s obstetrician referred her to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). There, doctors had recently debuted a groundbreaking inpatient psychiatric unit, the first in the nation specifically tailored to women suffering perinatal (prenatal and postpartum) mood disorders. Unlike a general psychiatric unit, it offered:

• A core group of doctors specializing in perinatal issues
• Psychiatrists attuned to medications that wouldn’t harm a pregnancy or a nursing newborn
• An unusual policy of allowing children, even babies, on the ward during extended visiting hours
• Mom-only counseling focused on anxiety and bonding.

And though there were only six beds, one was available for her.

Read more…

So the Infant Commander has skipped one of his two nightly feedings each night since last Friday. Could this be the start of a trend? His exhausted parents sincerely hope so!

Also, he stood all by himself for about 20 seconds this morning. That’s the first time he’s ever stood without support for that long. He was holding on to the edge of his Baby Corral, and I handed him a toy. He grabbed it with one hand, then let go and used the other to start pushing buttons on the toy. I don’t think he realized that he was standing without support until he fell on his butt and looked extremely surprised!

Update: this evening he stood on his own two baby feet, without support, multiple times! He clearly understood what he was doing, too. He had a small book in both hands and I was supporting his torso. I took my hands away and he grinned at me and stood there, slightly swaying, for probably 15 seconds before beginning to fall. I steadied him and took my hands away again. We repeated this probably 8 times or so before he got tired of it and crawled off. Milestone achieved!